Sex Selection: Tools for Action

Supporters of abortion rights are deeply torn by the practice of sex selection. The recent introduction by abortion opponents of federal and state bills that would ban sex-selective abortions – clearly in the service of their larger agenda – makes the challenge even more difficult.

“As much as reproductive rights and justice advocates would prefer a world without sex selection, they are also deeply concerned that limiting sex selection could implicate abortion rights in the United States and undermine women's reproductive privacy and self-determination.

"Nevertheless, progressive advocates are being pushed to take a position on sex selection in part because the anti-abortion groups have begun using sex selection as a wedge issue to undermine abortion rights, and in part because of their own pressing concerns about gender discrimination and trait selection. Importantly, some advocates believe that lines can be drawn that uphold abortion rights and discourage sex selection, lines that have been drawn successfully in numerous other countries in the world.”

Genomics England’s plans to move into paid-for genome sequencing of healthy people has done more than raise eyebrows in the scientific world. Last week a parade of the genomics great and good – who had clearly not been informed of...

Last year’s heritable human gene editing scandal continues to reverberate. He Jiankui remains under investigation in China, where authorities have confirmed his work but the extent of his punishment remains unclear, possibly because of some ambiguity in the applicable regulations. He has definitely been fired by his university.

In the US, both Rice University and Stanford are formally investigating faculty members whose involvement with the work may have been more extensive than first thought. Michael Deem of Rice was revealed...

A Chinese researcher recently disrupted the CCR5 gene, which builds a protein that acts as an entryway that HIV uses to gain entry to T-cells, allegedly creating the world’s first genetically engineered baby. Chinese officials moved swiftly to condemn the...